


Clace on Ice

by The_Dirigible_Dinosaur



Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Also very loosely inspired by Yuri!!! On Ice, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, Alternate Universe - Olympics, And I do respect their Platonic-ness, Background Emma Carstairs/Julian Blackthorn - Freeform, Background Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Background Simon Lewis/Isabelle Lightwood, Cheesy Moments, Childhood Friends to Lovers, Cliche, Drama, F/M, Grand Prix Final, I know they're not a couple, Ice Dancing, Ice Skating AU, Light Angst, M/M, Olympics, Such drama, Their chemistry is so inspiring, but - Freeform, clace, inspired by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, inspiring enough to want to write a TMI fic off of them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27587183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Dirigible_Dinosaur/pseuds/The_Dirigible_Dinosaur
Summary: Clary and Jace have been ice dancing partners since they were nine years old and their relationship goes through a whole lot of changes over the years as they compete to achieve their goal of getting to the Olympics, together, with their crazy friends and skating drama along the way.
Relationships: Clary Fray/Jace Wayland
Kudos: 9





	1. First Meetings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter in which Jace shows off and Clary is a five year old badass.
> 
> I'd also like to thank @cupcakesandkittens on Tumblr for their massive help in getting this fic out here, without them, writing and posting this would have been so much harder.

__

_Alicante Ice Rink, Canada, 1993_

A shy little girl with bright red hair tied up in pigtails cautiously steps onto the slippery ice, wearing a mini-sized pair of skates and a careful expression on her face. Her eyes are narrowed in concentration as she starts shuffling forward, following the directions of her mother standing right beside her.

The feeling of walking on ice on metal blades is alien. It’s strange and weird and wonderful. 

She’s supposed to try and keep her feet still now, to try and move forward without taking steps. She tries and immediately her balance is lost, she falls on the ice, her chubby cheek coming into contact with the cold surface.

It hurts but she’s not ready to give up. There’s a strange feeling of rightness building inside her and she needs to explore it more, to explore _this_. So she takes her mother’s outstretched hand and gets up again.

Nearby, her elder brother is still clutching onto their father’s hands, too afraid to step out on the ice and follow in his baby sister’s footsteps. She’d show him just how brave girls could be, brave enough to play Knights and Dragons with the big boys!

She’s standing again, regaining her balance and she can hear her mother’s encouragement.

“That’s right Clary-girl, come on, you can do this! Just let your feet slide and carry you forward. Let the ice move you.”

 _Let the ice move you._ She builds up to where she was earlier, taking slow shuffling steps before relaxing her feet, still keeping them in the position she’d been shown earlier as she pushes herself forward.

And she’s moving, some unseen force propelling her forward and it feels effortless, she’s flying like the little robin in their garden. The air is cool and fresh and her hair is brushing in her face and she likes this feeling. It’s freeing and new and she’s excited and she can hear her parents cheering her on and she thinks she could definitely get used to this feeling.

In fact, she thinks she even likes this more than how much she likes when they paint pictures in her pre-school, something Miss Wayland always praises her for.

She’s still going though and the other end of the rink is getting closer and she realizes she doesn’t know how to stop and she can hear her mother’s yelling and her voice is getting closer.

Just before she careens into the rink’s barrier someone grabs her by her sweater and pulls her backwards, right into the strong grip of her mother.

Heart pounding, she looks up into the green eyes that she’d inherited, eyes that were looking concernedly down at her.

“Again!” the five year old lisps.

* * *

_Alicante Ice Rink, Canada, 1997_

Jace couldn’t resist showing off just a little as he glides speedily across the ice, his movements fluid and agile. 

His aunt and coach had made him come to the rink earlier than usual today, saying something about introducing him to someone.

He really hoped it was his new partner, he was super excited about having someone his age to skate with, even though they’d probably find it a bit difficult to keep up with him. After all, he’d been glued to the ice since he was just two years old. That and, as everyone kept saying, he was naturally talented.

He executes a flawless serpentine step sequence on the ice, before performing an elaborate Biellman spiral holding his raised leg with both arms reaching behind his head to pull up his skate clad foot.

He settles down into a glide once more with an impatient glance in Aunt Tessa’s direction as her back faces him while she’s fully occupied on a phone call with someone. Finally she hangs up before turning towards him with a wide smile, her grey eyes sparkling.

“Well Jace, guess what, you’re gonna be meeting your potential partner today! Depending on how today goes the both of you will be skating together for a while so please do be nice to her.”

Interesting.

“What’s her name?”

“My name’s Clary. Well, Clarissa technically but everyone calls me Clary.” The feminine voice is coming from the entrance to the rink and he spins around on the ice to be met with the sight of a skinny little girl with red braids and a tentative smile on her face, standing beside a woman who looked like an older version of her, probably her mother.

She looked like a scrap of a girl. How exactly was she expected to keep up with him?

“Ah Clary, Jocelyn, you’re here! Wonderful. Jace, come over here and say hi.”

Dutifully he skates over to the rink gate and leans over the fencing and gives her a little wave.

“Hello Clary. My name’s Jace.”

She gives him a small wave back and steps forward a little so he can see that her eyes were a bright green colour and that they appeared to be sizing him up in just the way that he had been doing to her. He feels strangely conscious of himself.

“Ok well, Jocelyn if you’d like to take a seat over there,” Aunt Tessa gestures towards one of the benches on the side, going into coach mode, “and Clary can we have you wearing your skates so we can start off with a few warm ups.”

Clary nods and walks off to do his aunt’s bidding and as he leans against the rink walls and watches her lace up her skates he can’t help but think that he'd be seeing quite a lot of her in the years to come. 

* * *

Once Clary had done her warm ups it was finally time for them to start practice together, first they had to learn how to skate together in the rink with another person. Jace thought that this was stupid but apparently collisions on ice were a thing and the idea of his nose getting broken after crashing into Clary was not an appealing thought.

So they skated around the rink for a while, getting to know each other’s style, and he was rather surprised by the neatness with which Clary skated.

While Jace tended to let himself go and do whatever he felt like on the ice, consequences be darned, Clary seemed to do everything deliberately and gracefully.

They moved on into some basic foot sequences, keeping a careful space between them. He wasn’t about to admit that he was being especially determined to do well to show off to his prospective partner, but that was precisely what he was doing.

A little while and a few twizzles and spirals later, practice time was over and his Aunt’s eyes were shining.

“Fantastic, your moves sync so well, especially considering that this is the first time you guys have skated with a partner! I knew you two would be a good match.”

One thing was for sure, from the way the last few hours had gone he knew that he didn’t need to worry about Clary not keeping up with him, it was clear that his Aunt had trained her just as well as she had with him. 

Aunt Tessa goes over to the sidelines to engage in conversation with Jocelyn, presumably to inform her that her daughter had a new partner, leaving him alone with said daughter. 

The silence is a little awkward. What was wrong with him, usually he was a lot more social than this. There was just something about this girl that set him on edge.

Finally he takes the plunge. “So, how old are you?”

“I’m nine. You?”

“Nine as well.”

“Cool.”

They revert back to silence until Aunt Tessa gestures for them to get off the ice and pack up. 

Just before they leave the rink his aunt makes them all hang back for a second and he’s standing at the rink entrance in between her and Clary’s mother, who looked intimidating but not unkind.

“Right, so Clary, Jace you two are officially being partnered up and y’all will be competing in competitions together as well. Today was just a warm up and the real work starts next time so I need total commitment from the both of you. You’ll learn to completely trust one another both on and off the ice and I’d encourage spending time together off the rink as well in order for you to be friends.”

Clary nodded along and shot Jace a small smile before saying goodbye to the coach and walking off with her mother, bag in hand.

As he watched her go, a feeling of excitement at the thought of skating and competing with her surfaced and he couldn’t wait to get to know and learn to skate with his new partner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there, I hope you liked that short chapter where they meet for the first time. The first few chapters will have foetal Clace moments before we switch to their senior year in High School, when things really start to heat up, so stick around:) I'll also be doing my best to provide regular weekly updates but there's no guarantee.
> 
> As always, reviews are highly appreciated and feel free to come find me on Tumblr: [@dirigibledinosaur](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dirigibledinosaur)
> 
> Let me know if you'd like me to link some ice skating videos here that might help you if you would like to actually see the moves that I mention throughout the story. (I've never gone ice skating in my life so please do let me know if I've made a mistake.)


	2. First Relationships

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter in which Clace has a rocky moment.

His aunt wasn’t kidding when she said ‘total commitment’, they trained and trained and then trained some more. 

He and Clary were both schooling online until they turned 14 and entered high school, so a lot of their free time was spent on the ice, learning tricks and moves and how to achieve total synchronisation. They also spent a lot of time learning about each other.

After that first rather awkward meeting, they’d gotten a lot more comfortable around each other, although the first time they’d had to hold hands for a skating exercise, he was ashamed to say that it wasn’t just Clary’s face that had flamed a red that was as bright as her hair.

As the year progressed they spent more and more time with each other, hanging out outside of the rink, going and eating fries from McDonalds and riding their bikes together at the park. Clary was extremely athletic and used to do gymnastics and track racing before quitting to focus on skating so she could definitely hold her own against him and he always had a huge level of respect for her.

They’d hang out at each other’s houses and sometimes her intimidating older brother Jonathan would be there when he visited her place, glowering down at the boy who was just a few years younger than him. He did manage to make his way into Jon’s good books after they shared a rather passionate conversation about the Backstreet Boys’s latest album.

Sometimes Clary would also show him her art, beautiful paintings and sketches. Jace wasn’t very interested in art and yet even he was impressed by her work; there was something so very _Clary_ about the detailing and vibrant colours.

Soon they became best friends, knew each other’s habits, like how Clary would bite her lip when she was focusing intently on either her art or skating, the other’s favourite colours (Clary actually didn’t have one ‘cus apparently it was too hard to choose just one, for fear of hurting the other colours's feelings. Jace however had no such qualms and blatantly stated red), they could even discern each other’s feelings, always knowing when the other was not having a good day on the ice, or when they were finding a step difficult to do and needed encouragement. 

They did of course have other friends of their own as well, Clary’s friend since toddlerhood Simon was sometimes around when he visited and Jace also hung out a lot with his friend Jordan and his neighbour Alec.

For his birthday his mom invited Clary, Jordan and Alec along with his little sister Isabelle over for a spend a day and whilst Alec and Jordan were skeptical about having to ‘babysit’ yet another girl, Clary soon won them over with her crazy good skills when they went skateboarding and also secured a friendship with Izzy. 

Later that night when the candles on the gooey chocolate cake had been blown and the pizza for dinner had been devoured, when Alec, Jordan and Izzy had all gone, Jace and Clary were alone sitting on his front step waiting for Jocelyn and his mom to end their age-long chat. Somewhere in the distance crickets were chirping as Clary leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder and let out a sleepy sigh.

“Hey Clary.”

“Yeah?”

“Would you...would you be my girlfriend?”

Jace wasn’t sure what having a girlfriend really meant but he assumed it meant a special friend who was a girl. From what he’d heard on TV, having a girlfriend also meant kissing. 

“Sure.” She raised her head and pressed a shy kiss to his cheek before laying back down again and looking up at the stars as he tangled their hands together.

* * *

Their relationship status as girlfriend and boyfriend lasted for all of eight months before Jace called it off via phone call.

Alec and Jordan had been teasing him relentlessly over it and whistled every time he and Clary had held hands and his family was no better so finally he’d had enough. 

“I’m sorry, Clary.”

“It’s alright Jace, let’s just focus on skating, ok?”

“Ok.”

And so they did, while they were still BFF's there were no more kisses on cheeks and hand holding was only done on the ice, where they spent most of their time practicing new routines for competitions.

A year or two passed and they’d racked up a decent amount of medals and certificates together, but their first truly big competition was the 2001 Canadian Figure Skating Championship.

They worked hard on their routine to the song ‘We Go Together’ from the movie Grease and that was definitely what they did. Clary really hadn’t appreciated the leather pants of her costume and having to wear a ribbon in her hair, but you couldn’t stop Aunt Tess from getting what she wanted. Luckily Jace had managed to get away with just trousers and a black t-shirt.

Their routine was pretty intense and he kept forgetting the steps during practice, making Clary have to take the lead but fortunately everything went smoothly on the actual day and they glibly performed their dance on the ice, Jace remembering when to twirl Clary around, when to lift her for a rotation and when to grip her leg as she raised it to perform a spiral, something she hated with those pants.

They executed perfect lutzes and axels, they felt each other's movements and nuances and their performance was mostly seamless except for a slight hitch in a landing after a lift but even with that they were named the pre-novice champions, much to their families' jubilations.

Later that night they celebrated by going out with their parents and getting dinner from their go to fast food place _'Taki's' a_ burger for Clary and a spaghetti with meatballs for Jace, which ended in Jace choking on a meatball after a joke from Clary which further resulted in a stain of marinara sauce on his shirt that looked rather a lot like blood. Jonathan had certainly thought so, much to their amusement.

From then on, boosted by their success, they worked even harder for these competitions which would help secure their futures as competitive skaters and help them to achieve their shared goal of reaching the Olympics. The Olympics, that glorified competition that seemed so far out of their reach, but not for long, they were determined to get there.

Their 2002 season went well with them winning Bronze at the Championship at novice level. 

They placed 7th in 2003 at the Championships when they were fourteen, and now it was finally time for them to start high school. They’d spoken with their parents and Aunt Tessa about what their next move should be and it was decided that they’d now train under the esteemed and well established Coach Hodge Starkweather, who split his coaching time between Canada and America, and their new choreographer Jessamine Lovelace in nearby Michigan in preparation for their Junior Grand Prix debut, while also starting a high school education at Idris High.

As September arrived and he, Clary, Jordan, Alec, Simon and Izzy were all hanging out together in preparation for a new school year and a new phase of their lives, the excitement and trepidation in the air was palpable and Jace had heard enough stories about High School so that even his confident self was a bit tentative about starting school for the first time and associating with so many kids his age as well as following a set of classes, but at least the sassy redhead would be by his side and in just the way they handled things together on the ice, he was pretty sure they could get through High School unscathed, or maybe just mildy scathed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's not been a week just yet, but I thought I'd post this before my exams start up. Anyways, next week we'll be starting with a high school age gang and narration by a sassy teenage Clary so things'll really be starting up then:))


End file.
